Worthless
Chapter 5
The Earth Begins To Rot
The Light Warriors returned to Coneria first to raid its treasury. However,
just as they were cleaning the blood off their swords and picking up a few
sticks of TNT, Pamo and Lane butted in on them.
"First you steal an Orb, now you raid the treasury. Typical."
"Pamo!" Burn growled. Pamo was now wearing a steel foot. It cost the Black
Belt Academy a lot of money, but the weapon shop created it for him out of
old Rapiers and Small Knives. "Hm. You can walk again."
"Save the conversation for later," Pamo said, raising his fists. Burn drew
his Rapier, and the rest of the Light Warriors drew their weapons, also.
They put them away at a few words from Burn.
"This is my vendetta," Burn said calmly. With that, he Fasted himself and
charged to do battle. Burn managed to make a few cuts in Pamo's flesh, but
nothing serious. At the rate he was bleeding, he would die of old age before
blood loss. A few blows from the Black Belt's fists tickled Burn's fading
bruises and made them resurface. A blast of Fire2 knocked Pamo back into
Lane, and the force propelled them both into the stone wall. Burn then shot
them with a Lit2 spell. Electricity surged through their bodies for two
minutes that seemed like two hours for the victims. They finally gave in,
and Burn let up on the spell.
"I'll let you live for now. Don't try to cross me again." With that, Burn
turned on his heel, his cape flowing behind him, and his hands guiding his
awed comrades away from the mess.
A throwing knife carved itself a new notch in a stone pillar six inches to
the right of Red's head.
* * * *
The Light Warriors searched the other areas with locked doors to find some
fairly nice weapons and armor, and also some rather large amounts of gold.
They stayed at the Inn in Elfland, and after some searching with the ship
found a cave inhabited by dwarves. They found that an engineer had been
working on a canal out of the Aldi Sea and that he needed TNT to finish it.
The Light Warriors knew they could advance no farther into their journey
without this canal, and they gladly turned over their TNT. Thus they sailed
west out of the Aldi Sea and arrived at a town surrounded by swamps known as
Melmond.
Melmond had definitely seen better days. There were patches of grass where
there was nothing but desolation, that were rotting and falling away. The
Clinic had been completely decimated. They bought a few useful spells,
namely Fire3 and Bane, although only Maim could use Bane, and then Cure3,
Life, and Harm3, but again Burn could only use Cure3.
After talking to the townsfolk, the Warriors learned that the village had
been attacked by a Vampire living in a cave to the south known as the Earth
Cave. They found a cave to the west first, however, but their path was
blocked by a Titan who wanted a Ruby. So they headed south to their real
destination, the Earth Cave.
The Fire3 spell was very handy in there, as most if not all of the enemies
were weak against it. They finally reached and easily slew the Vampire. They
received a Ruby, but the earth refused to stop rotting. They found a plate
which they could not pry up. They deduced that under here was the source of
the rot. Maybe, however, they would find something west of the Titan's
Tunnel.
They did. They headed up to the tunnel and gave the Titan the Ruby, which he
popped into his mouth and ate whole. Then he disappeared. They headed
farther west and found a secluded cave where a sage named Sarda lived. Sarda
told them that they would need a Rod to open the plate, and he gave them the
Rod they needed. So they headed back to the Earth Cave and charged south
into the cave.
They had reached Level 10 through fighting battles, but they still had a
problem with what was below the plate. They came to the end of the cave and
saw an altar. A ghostly apparition floated over it, an apparition with a
purple robe and a skull for a head. Three skulls hung like beads on a
hooplike necklace. This apparition said that she was Lich, the Fiend of
Earth, and that she would have to destroy them.
They had problems fighting Lich, but not too many. Maim guessed that she was
undead, and Burn cast Fast on Red while Silk and Maim shot the purple-robed
being with Harm3 and Fire3 respectively. Burn joined in with Fire3, and with
the help of Red's sword they killed the Fiend.
They were somewhat severely injured, but they stepped forward to the altar
and finally cleared one of the Orbs of the darkness. Then they were
transported outside, and they ran back to Melmond to stay at the Inn,
because they definitely needed the rest.